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New “Frankenstein” Switchgrass is Good News for the Navy, Too

Despite aggressive pushback from anti-biofuel leadership in Congress, it looks like the U.S. Navy is well on the way to getting its biofuel after all. A new biofuel research project pairing the U.S. Department of Agriculture with the University of California, Berkeley has yielded a new cobbled-together variety of switchgrass that contains up to 250 percent more starch than other varieties. That could effectively slam the door on the Navy’s critics, by leading to a biofuel production process that is cost-competitive with petroleum.

U.S. Navy vs Congress on Biofuels

CleanTechnica has been following the U.S. Navy’s transition to biofuels and other forms of alternative energy, including solar power and wave energy. Last spring, Republican leaders in Congress attempted to monkey wrench the Navy’s biofuel initiatives by passing legislation that would prohibit the Navy from buying any alternative fuel that is more expensive than conventional fuels.

The Obama Administration swiftly responded with a one-two punch, one being $62 million in Navy–supported funding for new research projects to help bring down the cost of biofuel. The initiative is authorized under the 1950’s-era Defense Production Act, so it is not affected by Congress’s recent actions.

The other is a new $210 million public-private partnership to build three new biorefineries. That skirts other recent legislation that had been intended to prevent the Navy from building its own biorefineries.

Better Switchgrass for Cheaper Biofuel

The new research from USDA and UC–Berkeley predates all of this maneuvering, but it could provide the knockout punch. The project involves patching a gene from corn called corngrass into switchgrass, to create a kind of Frankenstein’s monster of a grass that is incapable of aging.

As described by writer Ann Perry at USDA, the new switchgrass stays in an early stage of life in which it never goes dormant, and it never produces seeds or flowers.

Without the need to expend energy on flowers and seeds, the grass keeps up to 250 percent more starch in its stem than other varieties, yielding more sugar for fermentation into biofuels.

Another Path to Biofuel from Non-Food Crops

As an extra bonus, the leaves of the new switchgrass contain clues that might lead to more efficient methods for breaking down grasses and other woody non-food plants into biofuels.

The leaves are much softer than those in unmodified switchgrass, and they contain a different kind of lignin (lignin is the substance that stiffens cell walls in woody plants). According to Perry, an analysis of the new lignin could provide new information on how to release the sugars from plant cells.

National security and biofuel refining are just two sectors that win out from the new initiative. Farmers across the U.S. also stand to gain, through the development of hardy, drought-resistant crops that can be grown with less need for irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides.

As for leaders in Congress who are against federal policies that pick “energy winners and losers,” they may be getting the stinkeye from the U.S. Navy, but they are getting plenty of support from the Republican Party Platform (see page 15) as well as from presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan.

About the Author

Tina Casey Tina Casey specializes in military and corporate sustainability, advanced technology, emerging materials, biofuels, and water and wastewater issues. Tina’s articles are reposted frequently on Reuters, Scientific American, and many other sites. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on Twitter @TinaMCasey and Google+.

Switchgrass is an aggressive species that displaces the natural grass in areas it is allowed to grow. Neither wild or domestic animals eat switchgrass unless they are in a starvation state. This invasive grass harms the natural order of things. Bad for the environment simply to supply the government backers with another means of doing “what they think is right” without considering the long term impact on our world.

Bob_Wallace

“displaces the natural grass”

“harms the natural order of things”

Panicum virgatum, commonly known as switchgrass, is a perennial warm season bunchgrass native to North America, where it occurs naturally from 55°N latitude in Canada southwards into the United States and Mexico.

Switchgrass is one of the dominant species of the central North American tallgrass prairie and can be found in remnant prairies, in native grass pastures, and naturalized along roadsides. It is used primarily for soil conservation, forage production, game cover, as an ornamental grass, and more recently as a biomass crop for ethanol and butanol, in phytoremediation projects, fiber, electricity, and heat production and for biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

And it’ll grow without water or fertilizer on land that moon men would find too barren and yield 1,000 gallons of ethanol per acre. We’ve heard it all before. When is Clean Technica going to stop being an investment brochure and start being a site that fosters critical thinking about the future of energy? Thermodynamics 101 would be a good place to start.

http://soltesza.wordpress.com/ sola

I am not sure what you are proposing.

Why would CT stop reporting about advancements in the biofuel sector?

Even if you find current biofuels inefficient, this may not be a case if such big improvements are made.

MOE

GROW FOOD NOT BIO FUEL. DIDN’T YOU HEAR THE LATEST? WE DON’T NEED IT ANYMORE!

Wind Energy

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